


we are never, ever getting back together

by ariquitecontrary



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: 4x17 Alternate Ending, Gen, Jeronica friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:15:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23677501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariquitecontrary/pseuds/ariquitecontrary
Summary: Getting cheated on sucks.Getting cheated on with your best friend? Now that’s a whole new level of suck that Jughead Jones didn’t even know was possible.
Relationships: Jughead Jones & Veronica Lodge
Comments: 13
Kudos: 119





	we are never, ever getting back together

**Author's Note:**

> I'm kind of tipsy and very annoyed over tonight's episode so have this! 
> 
> AKA: I let all of my Jughead and Veronica bff feelings come to the surface. This isn't supposed to be some deep and moving work. It's fun. It's light. I hope you enjoy it. <3

Getting cheated on sucks. 

Getting cheated on with your best friend? Now that’s a whole new level of suck that Jughead Jones didn’t even know was possible. 

And the even suckier part about all of this is that if you had told sixteen-year-old Jughead that Betty Cooper would cheat on him with Archie fucking Andrews, he would have believed you a hundred percent. He would have nodded and said ‘Well, I called it, didn’t I?’ and then he would have proceeded to lick his wounds and somehow move on. But eighteen-year-old Jughead doesn’t know _how_ to move on, because he had never even seen this coming. He thought they were It for each other. He doesn’t know how the hell he’s supposed to start planning a future without her by his side when the past two years have been him doing nothing but that. Now he has to think up an entirely new game plan that includes him moving on from all of this. How the hell does someone move on from Betty Cooper? A part of him isn’t even sure if he wants to move on. He keeps waiting for Betty to call him and say ‘Just kidding!’. He thinks that he would be okay with this whole thing being one big prank if it meant that he got to keep her. 

But no one’s laughing. 

“Was the burger okay?” 

He looks up from where his eyes had been focused on the empty booth seat in front of him; the seat where Archie and Veronica would usually be sitting. He blinks a few times and glances up at the voice. 

Pop looks down at him in worry and Jughead glances down at the burger in question. It’s untouched, which isn’t usual for him, but he really can’t think about eating right now; not when it feels like his stomach is about to fall out of his ass. 

“It’s great, Pop. Sorry, guess I’m just not hungry today.” 

Pop nods, like he knows exactly what’s bothering Jughead, and maybe he does. He’s always seemed to have that kind of sixth sense when it came to the people of Riverdale. 

“It doesn’t always hurt,” Pop says as he takes the plate away. “You’re a good boy, Jughead. Good things will come to you in time.” 

He thinks about those words long after Pop leaves his table. Truth be told, he doesn’t know how long he sits there, thinking about what he did wrong or what he should have done differently. He wonders how he could have been a better boyfriend. He had tried his hardest, really he had. He had put everything he had into making sure that he could somehow be enough for Betty Cooper, and she had let him believe that he _was_ enough. And it was all a lie. Maybe that’s what hurts the most about all of this. 

His ass is starting to feel numb by the time someone slides into the seat across from him. He looks up in shock, and maybe a little bit warily too as he gets ready to fight off whoever has decided to bother him today. He has to say, he’s a little bit surprised to see Veronica Lodge sitting in front of him. 

Her eyes are red and puffy and she’s dressed in jeans and her River Vixen jacket. Her hair is in a loose ponytail and she looks as homely as he’s ever seen her. 

“Knew I’d find you here,” she says, and despite her appearance and the way he can tell that she’d been crying recently, her voice sounds happy. “What better place to wallow for Jughead Jones than Pop’s?” 

“Do you actually need something or are you just here to annoy me?” He means for the words to come out as harsh, but his voice breaks somewhere in the middle and he wonders if he’s going to spend the rest of his life hating Betty Cooper for what she did to him. 

“Maybe a bit of both.” She gets up from the booth and stands in front of him, holding her hand out to him. “Come on.” 

“Excuse me?” He looks at her hand like it’s holding a poison dart to his neck. 

“Come on!” She says, more urgently now. “I refuse to sit around and cry over what they did to us. I deserve better than that and despite what you may think, so do you.” She reaches out for him again. “ _We_ deserve better than that, Jughead. They don’t get to be happy while we sit here and cry.” 

He looks at her hand and then back up at her face. She’s smiling at him and for the first time since Betty had told him the truth about her and Archie, he’s looking at someone and he doesn’t feel like they’re going to betray him. And maybe him and Veronica had never been close, maybe they’d only been friends because of who they were dating, but right now they’re the only two who know what each other is going through. Right now, she’s the only friend he has. 

He takes her hand and stands up from the booth. 

“Where are we going?” He asks her and she just laughs. 

“To remember who we are!” She says happily as she leads him out of the diner, the two of them completely unaware of Pop’s lingering eyes and the smile that he gives them at the unlikely friendship. 

.

.

.

Veronica twirls around and around, spinning so quickly that Jughead wonders how she hasn’t fallen yet. 

The extravagant dress she’s now wearing is flying around her and she looks like a princess. He laughs as she trips a little and she pauses her twirling to look at him. 

“ _Now you’ll never see what you’ve done to me_ ,” she sings to Jughead from where he sits on her bed, stumbling on her feet a little, “ _You can take back your memories they’re no good to me_.” 

She points at him, obviously wanting him to sing the rest and he can’t help it--he stands up from the bed and leans into her hairbrush turned microphone. 

“ _And here’s all your lies_ ,” he sings into it, “ _You can’t look me in the eyes_...” 

Both of them lean into it now and Jughead wraps an arm around Veronica as she starts hopping up and down. Together the belt out the next lines. 

“ _With the sad, sad look that you wear so well_!” Veronica pouts as if she’s about to cry and Jughead wipes at a fake tear. Then they smile and he begins to jump with her. 

“ _When you see my face, hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell_!” Veronica sings and Jughead grabs her hand and holds it high in the air so that he can twirl her around. 

“ _And when you walk my way, hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell_!” He sings through his laughter. Veronica points right at him and he brings it home. “ _And when you find a man that’s worth a damn and treats you well…_ ” he points back at Veronica with a grin. 

“-- _Then he’s a fool, you’re just as well, hope it gives you hell_!” 

They finish off the last chorus of the song together and Jughead’s breathing heavily by the time it’s all done.

“Yes!” Veronica cheers once they’ve calmed down. “Don’t you feel so much better now?” 

He expects himself to say no. After all, how could he? He just lost the girl he had thought of as the love of his life and yet… and yet. 

“Yeah,” he breathes out. “I do actually. How did you do that?” 

“Archie’s not the first person to break my heart,” she admits. “I just didn’t think that he actually ever would, but… I know a thing or two about mending a broken heart.” She sits down on her bed and falls into the sheets. Jughead takes a seat in the chair at her vanity mirror. “Can I tell you something, Jughead?” 

“Sure.” 

She pauses for a moment. “You didn’t deserve this--.” 

“Veronica,” he says, cutting her off. “You don’t need to do this.” 

“Yes, I do.” She sits up and looks at him in the eyes. “I need to. I’ve heard this before from my friends, but I have a feeling that you haven’t and you _need_ to. You didn’t deserve this, Jug. I know we were never all that close, but you’re a good person. You’re the best of us even. I’m sorry that she couldn’t see that, but I promise you that one day you’re going to meet someone who’s going to look at you and they’ll never even _dream_ of another person. This isn’t where your story ends; it’s where it begins.” 

Jughead gulps and looks down to his hands. “I always pictured my future with her, you know? I never… maybe I was stupid for thinking I could be good enough, but God… I really wanted to be good enough for her.” 

Veronica hops off of the bed and before he realizes what she’s doing, she wraps her arms around him tightly in a hug. He’s so surprised that he just sits there for a minute before he finally throws his arms back around her, hugging her for the first time since he’s known her. 

“You _are_ enough,” Veronica tells him as she pulls away. “Just like I’m enough. Betty and Archie couldn’t see that and you know what? That’s on them. It’s _their_ loss, not ours. You and I-- we’re going to get out of here. We’re going to go to our dream schools and you’ll be some famous mystery writer and I’ll be running my own business and we’ll be happy. Our story doesn’t end here; our _happiness_ doesn’t end here.” 

“You sound awfully sure of that,” he says quietly, but he’s smiling at her now. 

“Because it’s the truth. You know it, too.” 

Jughead shakes his head. “I don’t know where to go from here,” he admits. 

“I don’t either,” she says quietly, “but you know what?” 

“What?” 

“We can figure it out together. It’s like I said sophomore year, you and I have a lot in common. I think that we never got to try being actual friends because we were so busy being Betty’s boyfriend and Archie’s girlfriend. Maybe now we can just try being Jughead and Veronica.” 

He laughs lightly. “You think we could be friends?” 

“I think so,” she nods. “You don’t have to go through all of this alone, Jug.”

“Neither do you,” he tells her and she smiles at the words. “I don’t want to go home tonight,” he whispers as he looks to the ground. “She’s there and… I don’t know what to do.” 

“You don’t have to go there. You can stay here. My parents won’t mind and we have a guest room.”

His eyes widen at the offer. “I couldn’t--.” 

“You could. You don’t need to go back there right now. Give yourself some time to think and get yourself together.” 

“Are you sure?” He asks. “I don’t want to be in the way.”

“Are you kidding?” Veronica laughs. “I’m declaring you my new best friend during this time and that makes you always welcome here.” She smiles softly at him. “You’re safe here. I promise.” 

He looks at her and sees nothing but sincerity in her eyes. “Thank you, Veronica. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.” 

“Well,” she drags out, “you could have a karaoke night with me.” 

“Absolutely not.” 

“Oh, come on!” 

“No!” He laughs, but she goes to set up anyway. “Noooo, Veronica!” 

“We have to sing some Taylor Swift!” 

Jughead laughs and gets up to help her. 

Later, somewhere on the floor of her room, his phone will buzz with an incoming call from a certain blonde. It will go unnoticed and unanswered as Jughead and Veronica dance and sing along to Taylor Swift's entire discography. Multiple text messages will light up his phone, apology after apology, but they lay unanswered too. 

And Jughead laughs. 

He laughs and he sings and he dances like an idiot with a girl he never would have thought of as a true friend. 

And for the first time since he found out the truth, he’s happy. 

And when Veronica hands him her hairbrush to sing into, he belts the lyrics out with more energy than he thought he had. 

For the first time since he found out the truth, he doesn’t feel alone. 

For the first time since he found out the truth, he knows he’s going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me on tumblr @tk-strand.


End file.
